Hardly anyone expected this: Amazon Games is officially working on an online game based on The Lord of the Rings again! A new deal between Amazon Games and the license holder Middle-earth Enterprises, which has belonged to the Swedish media giant Embracer Group since August 2022, makes it possible. After the takeover, the two parties entered into negotiations again, which are now complete, which means: Green light for The Lord of the Rings! Development of the AAA game is being led by Amazon Games Orange County, the same studio that last delivered New World – so there are experienced people on board. (As a reminder: Amazon canceled another Lord of the Rings MMO only two years ago, but the new project should not build on it. More information can be found below in this news!)
What can we expect in The Lord of the Rings? Too much is not known yet, the game does not even have an official title. The developers describe it at least as an “MMO adventure” that is supposed to offer a persistent open world in Middle-earth. (While the term “MMO” is broader, we fully expect it to be an online role-playing game, much like New World.
Based on the books The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. So we’re back at some point in the Third Age – whether long before, during or after the War of the Ring, that can currently only be guessed at. There is also nothing to report about game mechanics, races, classes, story, payment model and so on.
But one thing is certain: There will be no reference to Amazon’s in-house series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, set during the Second Age.
Peter Jackson’s legendary films also play no role in the newly announced MMO. So don’t expect a similar look or familiar music in-game – Amazon Games is really doing its own thing here, while Amazon Studios continues to work on The Rings of Power Season 2.
Amazon’s new MMO is based on Tolkien’s books. There are no references to Peter Jackson’s cult films or to the series “The Rings of Power” (pictured here).
Source: Prime Video/Amazon Studios
Of course, there is a good reason for the thin information situation, because the game is still in an early planning phase. So you will definitely have to be patient for quite a while until the release – we do not expect a release until 2026 at the earliest. It is a multiplatform title, so at launch the MMO should not only be available for PC, but also for consoles.
What does the Lord of the Rings project mean for New World?
As an industry contact has assured us, The Lord of the Rings will have no impact on New World. The new game is currently being designed by a small team, which means the majority of Amazon Games Orange County remains focused on New World and new content development. (This also includes a full-fledged add-on, the according to an official roadmap to be released later this year.)
New World should also be provided with new content and further developed in the long term. It is expressly not planned to throttle work on New World in favor of The Lord of the Rings.
The same studio that developed New World is also responsible for The Lord of the Rings. However, the project is still in the concept phase.
Source: Amazon Games
We suspect that once Lord of the Rings has completed the concept phase and slowly moves into production, Amazon Games Orange County should simply hire a lot of new staff and build up a second team internally. But there is still a long way to go until then.
Why was Amazon’s first Lord of the Rings game discontinued back then?
In fact, Amazon Games was already working on an online role-playing game based on The Lord of the Rings a few years ago. At that time, the development was shared with the Chinese team Leyou Technologies.
But when this studio was bought by Tencent, the project faltered: Christoph Hartmann, VP of Amazon Games, later explained in an interviewthe negotiations with Tencent had simply become too complicated and lengthy.
Therefore, it was decided to abandon the project and instead prepare for the internal development of New World and the release of Lost Ark in North America and Europe.
With The Lord of the Rings, Amazon wants to further expand and consolidate its position in the games sector. Among other things, they also want to publish Throne and Liberty for NCSOFT and Blue Protocol for Bandai Namco Online in the future.
A new Tomb Raider is planned with Crystal Dynamics, and Glowmade (more here) and disruptive games (all information here) new games in collaboration with Amazon Games. Two more secret projects are currently in the works at studios in Montreal and San Diego.
Not the only MMO in Tolkien’s world
Amazon’s idea is of course not really new, after all there has been an MMORPG with the coveted license for many years: The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), which was started in 2007 by developer Turbine and is still played by a loyal community today .
So far it is not known whether the Amazon project could also have an impact on LOTRO, but we expect that both games can coexist without any problems – after all, the oldie still flushes money into the coffers. If you don’t know the title yet, you can download the (somewhat dusty) online role-playing game with the Free2Play model Try it here on Steam.
The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) started 16 years ago – and is still played by a loyal community even today.
Source: buffed
Last year, EA also secured the license from The Lord of the Rings to develop an online role-playing game for mobile devices.
The game is subtitled “Heroes of Middle-earth” and is since May 10, 2023 for iOS and Android accessible. It was developed by Capital Games, the same team that made Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes – another cash cow with a questionable Free2Play system. But don’t worry: EA’s mobile RPG is unrelated to Amazon’s project.
Sources: Amazon, press release
